Grammy heads to the hospital this morning. She’s got an artery that is 70% blocked, they say, and must have surgery. They told her to wash really, really good last night before going to bed, but don’t use a washcloth. Then, when she gets up this morning, she’s to wash really, really good again. “Just how dirty do they think I am?” she wondered?

Grammy’s in pretty good health.In fact, one of the nurses told her that with her skin, speech and brain function, she likely could live to see 100. Yes, Grammy’s pretty good looking and in good mental condition, all right.It really wasn’t until Grammy fell from her lawn mower that she began slowing down in her 70s. She broke or fractured something in her back and was laid up for quite some time.

Grammy is prone to falling.She’s had a bum hip since I can remember. The story goes, I think, something like she was standing on a step ladder and fell off. I was a baby at the time, so Grammy would have been 41 or 42. I don’t recall her walking with a limp, I just know she’d complained of it giving her trouble from time to time.

Falling from ladders isn’t so unusual. Swinging from the rafters in your garage is. Especially if you’re a 70 something old woman.But Grammy managed to do that. She’d climbed a ladder (gotta keep that old lady away from ladders!) to put something up into the rafters of her garage. The ladder slipped from beneath her feet, leaving her dangling there. Her only option, she decided, was to swing over to her car and land there. Give the woman a cape, she’s Super Granny!I can just picture it all too clearly, her swinging across the garage like Tarzan.Perhaps she needs a loin cloth instead of a cape?

Yes, Grammy is good at falling. In fact, she’s perfected the technique so well over the years that she’s been approached by major television stations who’d like to make falling an extreme sport. The woman has taken falling to new heights.Er…lows.Take last year, for example.It was on her birthday, and while most women would use this as an excuse to not lift a finger, Grammy decides that she might end up with company, so she decides to clean her house. Now, for you and I this may not appear to be the beginnings of an extreme sport. Not so with Grammy.In fact, she’s decided to combine steer wrangling with vacuuming. Confused?Yeah…

Grammy wanted to vacuum.Not just the center or around the furniture.No, it would appear that Grammy is thinking that her potential visitors may look under her furniture and think less of her if they don’t see vacuum cleaner tracks there. So she goes to grab the chair from the front, thinking she’ll just hoist it up a little and scoot it backwards. Have I mentioned Grammy’s age?She just turned 87, meaning last year she was 86. And the chair? A full sized recliner.

So there’s Grammy, trying to get a good grip on the chair, just like a wrangler would grab a steer. Except with Grammy, the chair did the flipping.Seems she grabbed that little lever that shoots the foot rest out, which hit her, knocking her off balance and sending her to the floor with a crash.

Grammy’s dear husband Wayne, thankfully, was awake when all this happened.

Wayne is getting up there in years these days.His sight isn’t so good anymore, and he can’t hear worth beans. If he’d been napping, who knows how long she’d have been left laying there. As it is, we’re thankful he saw her and didn’t trip over her, leaving both of them sprawled on the floor. Wayne got the phone and handed it to Grammy so she could call for help. Did she call 911?No.She called my mother.And what did she say? “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” No kidding.

Anyway, that’s when ESPN decided they could turn falling into an extreme sport. I mean, chair wrangling?Rafter swinging?Who wouldn’t want to watch a bunch of gray haired grannies doing this stuff?

But back to today.Grammy is probably up and in the shower, washing her neck with soap but not a washcloth as I type.Meaning she won’t be reading my blog today.And, get this, she says she won’t be able to vote for me, either! But you will, right?

A prayer for a smooth surgery and quick healing for her would be much appreciated!

Hi, Tracey. I’m praying for a great surgery and a quick recovery for your Grandma. I hope everything goes very smoothly for her. What a woman. I have to say you have good genes, she’ll live to be 100 still being Tarzan Granny (well hopefully no more falling).

You know those little bears that you can attach to a tree? They come in mail order catalogs, that’s where she found it. It’s the head and four legs; once attached it looks like the cub is climbing a tree from the front. Hopefully!

Wayne’s got a birthday coming up in July and she’s planning a hugely fantastic deal for him, and that bear cub was one of the decorations she wants for a stump outside. But smashed inside that styrofoam? We had no clue what it was.

I hope everything goes well for Grammy. Will be saying a prayer for all of you. Did you check out JB picture on my blog of him riding? He had a good bull drew for Saturday night but lasted for about 5 seconds, these bulls were pbr rank. They were the top of the line. I thik the bulls won that night. Well, we are counting the days till he leaves, I just don’t know how I’m going to take it. He leaves July 15 for 15 months. This is one time I can’t step between him and danger. We are still waiting on John’s body to get here. He is the one that killed in Irag. It seems the government is in the hurry to get our boys over there but takes their sweet time getting them home. I wish this war would hurry up and be finished.
Take care and have good one.
Laura

Man, I hope they don’t ask her to reach something for them at the hospital!
I will pray for Grammy…I don’t have one of my own anymore…I’ll share yours. And you can share my barn photos…just take them the good old fashioned way…

Dix, speaking of the nut house… Last year they put her on pain meds, and she reacts to them in the goofiest of looney tune ways! The conversations she had were real doozies, let me tell you, and the staff got quite a kick out of her, calling her ‘delightful’ on her charts!

I HAD LOST YOU! Damn! Your blog was among those, which had slipped through the cracks in my regular list of my fav. blogs to read. Damn!

OK, enough out-of-nice-blogging-character language. But I’m so glad I finally got caught up on this fact…. from Mustang Diaries actually. But I’m so slow these days that I’d not realized it, for myself.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd, you went and had a health emergency, while I was wandering around out there in blog land. Good grief Hon!! -sigh- Now I must go read about it. But I did read good news in Mustang Diaries. At least it sounded good. Although it also sounded unbelievable.

I do love your Grammy. But I’ve been reading and reading and not finding anything conclusive about YOU. Phullleeeeezze point me to something conclusive, if you have posted it anywhere and I, in my dense state, can’t find it.

Hon, I’ve been trying to post to your new blog, but blogger just plain hates me these days.

I’m fine. I think. They say I have beautiful arteries. Trouble is, I still have the blood pressure issues and am not sure why that’s suddenly gone bonkers. At least for the moment I’m not having a heart attack, which is good news. So I’m just relaxing when I begin feeling those types of signs and in a week or two will begin looking into other possible explanations.